


Spiderpox

by xxx_cat_xxx



Series: Whumping Peter Parker [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (mentioned) - Freeform, Avengers Family, Chicken Pox, Fever, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Parent Clint Barton, Parent Tony, Parent Tony Stark, Sick Peter, Sickfic, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Vomiting, dad clint, dad tony, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 08:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16950867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxx_cat_xxx/pseuds/xxx_cat_xxx
Summary: Peter gets Chickenpox while staying with the Barton Fam. Tony and Clint test their parenting skills.





	Spiderpox

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jeskifire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeskifire/gifts).



“Hey, birdbrain!” Tony shouts while pushing open the kitchen door with one elbow, the other arm firmly planted around Peter´s shoulder. “Do you have any ginger ale? Or Gatorade? Or, what do you give to kids who can´t keep their stomach in place?”

“What?” Clint calls out from where he is standing at the stove with Lila, his voice nearly lost in the loud whizzing of a pot that engulfs both of them in a cloud of steam.

“Nothing, I´m okay now,” Peter murmurs, blushing. “I don´t know, just felt queasy or something…”

“Queasy enough to call off the test flight of the newest StarkPlane after only 20 minutes,” Tony huffs, but he makes sure to push Peter fiercely into the nearest chair.

“I think we´ve got Pepto somewhere?” It´s more of a question than a statement, and Clint looks at Lila for help, as if his not-even-teenage daughter knew the location of household items better than he does. Which, all considered, might not even be that unlikely.

“Yeah, it´s in yours and Mummy´s bathroom.” she supplies. “Can I sit in Iron Man´s plane now?”

The question is directed at Clint, but she squints shily at Tony from behind her father´s back. Over the couple of days that they spent at the farm, Tony has grown quite comfortable with the girl, to everyone´s surprise. Laura has taken the two smaller ones to her parents for a week, leaving only Lila with Clint, and it turned out she has a keen interest in everything technical, quite to Tony´s delight.

“Maybe tomorrow.” he answers. “For now, I´m done with airsick children playing around with my inventions…”

“Hey!” Peter protests, “I´m not a child, I´m, like, twice as old as her…”

“And still only a third of me.” Tony finishes. “Weren´t you supposed to surprise us with a special lunch or something?” he adresses Clint.

“Yeah,” Clint replies, turning back to the kitchen, just to curse under his breath when he realizes that the cloud of steam has turned into blackish smoke.

“Come on, Peter,” Tony adresses the boy who has leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes, “Let´s set the table before you fall asleep.”

\---

They play darts in evening, Clint teaming up with Lila and Tony with Peter. Tony knew from the beginning that he could only lose against the archer in any game involving arrows - even his daughter seems to have inherited some of his talent - but he didn´t expect to get defeated so badly.

“Come on, Peter, at least try to aim at the board!” he shouts half-jokingly, half-frustrated when one of the kid´s darts barely misses his shoulder and clunks off against the window, not even close to its intended destination.

“Sorry,” Peter mumbles, rubbing his forehead with an exhausted frown.

“You´re still tired?” Clint eyes him suspiciously. “I thought you took a nap after lunch?”

“Yeah,” Peter says, his fingers now wandering to scratch at his neck. “I´m not feeling so great, actually…”

“You´re sick?” Lila inquires curiously. “Do you have this thing that me and Nat got last time, the chicken flu with all the freckles?”

“Black Widow had chicken pox?” Tony asks incredulously.

“Not Natasha, dude,” Clint replies. “I have a kid called Nathaniel, which you _should_ be knowing.” But the archer has grown pale under his sarcasm. He looks at Peter, who is still scratching at his hairline.

“Laura asked me to check with everyone two weeks ago when the kids got it after that Gala, but it really just slipped my head…” He looks guilty. “Peter, you ever had chicken pox?”

“Uhm…don´t think so,” the kid says weakly.

“Great,” Tony snorts, “ _Bird_ brain, quite literally.”

“Please tell me that _you_ had it.” Clint asks pleadingly.

“I practically grew up in a boarding school. I bet you can´t point out a single pediatric disease that I didn´t catch.”

“How come you never had it?” Clint turns back to Peter, who has given up on the game and fallen into the sofa.

“I changed schools a lot as a kid, because…” he stops, giving Tony a short look. “Because of some stuff that happened. I probably missed the outbreak each time.”

“And what about vaccinations? Please don’t tell me that Aunt Hottie is one of these anti-vaxxers…” Tony raises an eyebrow.

“Stop calling her that,” Peter protest weakly. “I don’t think she realized that I never had it… There was more important stuff going on, I guess.”

“Yeah. I get it.” Tony is momentarily lost for words, and there´s an awkward silence that is only interrupted by Lila climbing a chair and triumphantly sticking all of her darts into the bullseye.

“Okay,” Clint runs a hand through his hair with a slightly helpless expression, “Honestly, this is where Laura would be needed. Sick kids are kinda her speciality.” He sighs.“ I´ll get Lila to bed, it´s late anyways. And you, Peter, should also get some sleep. Let´s hope it´s false alarm and you´ve only caught a cold.”

\---

Of course, he´s wrong. A few hours later Clint has fallen asleep in front of the TV and Tony is growing restless. He has fixed the heating system and the cellar lamps, has installed a projector in Lila´s room that allows her to observe star constellations in real time, and he is definitely interested in Laura´s reaction once she discovers that her bathtub can now play songs on voice command.

He is walking up and down in the hallway, fiddling with a screwdriver and one of Cooper´s toy cars, when he nearly bumps into Peter who has suddenly materialized at the end of the staircase.

“Woah, kiddo. Don´t give an old mechanic a heart attack.” he smirks, the smile quickly fading when he takes in Peter´s slumped and slightly shivering posture.

“I´m sorry, Mr. Stark. I just - I couldn´t sleep, and then I was sick, and…” he trails off. The boy is extraordinarily pale under his sweaty curls, and there are traces of vomit staining his shirt. The first few red spots have appeared on his cheeks.

“Does chicken pox make you puke?” Tony asks a little disgusted, a little curious.

“Not usually.” Peter shrugs, slightly embarrassed. “It, ehm, it always happens when I get a fever…and also, Mr. Barton´s cooking is nearly as bad as yours.”

Tony has to hide a grin.

“Hey, I heard that.” Clint appears in the doorway, his hair rumpled, a geometric imprint of the couch pillow decorating one side of his face like an eccentric modern-art installation. He yawns and then walks over to Peter, brushing away the sweaty curls to feel his forehead.

“But you´re acquitted, you´re actually running hot,” he says before Peter can stutter an apology.

The boy leans into his touch a little, his eyelids slowly drifting shut. He looks so pitiful that something in Tony´s heart goes warm, and even Clint´s expression softens.

“Come on, let´s get you sorted out,” he says, wrapping an arm around Peter. “I´ll give you a change of clothes and a cup of tea, how does that sound?”

\---

“No scratching,” Tony says hoarsely. “I can hear you doing it. It´ll only take longer if you open them.”

“I know, I know. But it´s _itching_ ,” Peter growls hoarsely. “I thought you’re asleep?”

"Na,” Tony lies. “I was thinking. Meditating. Collecting ideas, something like that.”

He yawns quietly and stretches his arms till they nearly touch Peter’s legs. He is draped over an old armchair next to the bed in the weirdest angle, the pain in his neck and shoulders already punishing him for falling asleep in this position.

He doesn’t recall how that happened, just that it probably had something to do with a certain spider-kid asking him for a recount of one of his earlier missions while flashing his fever-glazed eyes at him, and then for another, and then he´d gotten lost in a time when everything had been simpler and wholer.

He stays in the armchair a little longer, until Peter has stopped scratching and started to snore ever so quietly, and he thinks about Clint and Lila, about Peter and May, about second and third chances and undiscovered opportunities.

“Friday,” he whispers, fumbling the phone out of his pocket, “Pull up Pepper´s calender. When´s the next time she´s got a night off? I wanna take a girl out on a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this prompt: _You could maybe do one where Clint’s kids all have chickenpox, then Peter catches it from them [Optional: and then they figure out Tony never got it so he catches it from Peter (more dangerous for adults?)] and Clint ends up taking care of everybody :P_
> 
> This got pretty soft, but maybe we all need that after last week´s trailer. I wrote this while being pretty down for no reason at all, and it was hard to convince myself that I should not just stop writing at all because I´ll never be as good as I want to be. But I finished it, because I don´t like bailing out on things. Hope it turned out okay.
> 
> I´m sorry for leaving out the part with Tony, you know I love to fuck him up, but it seemed pretty unrealistic for both of them to get sick, and for Tony to stay with Clint instead of returning to the tower (especially considering that Chicken Pox has a pretty long incubation period). It´s not that I didn´t like the idea, I just couldn´t work out the logistics.
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](https://xxx-cat-xxx.tumblr.com/).


End file.
